In anticipation to its proposed mid-November opening, the Metramarket at 131 N. Clinton announced an additional 16 vendors to the 20 already onboard today. We've included the full list after the jump. [Inbox]
His Elective Majesty and the Illinois Restaurant Association trotted out some of the city's best chefs and sommeliers yesterday to announce the second annual Chicago Gourmet festival, taking place September 26-27. Reader reporter Julia Thiel noted that the IRA is looking to atone for last year's inaugural edition, which was heavy on the wine and spirits. And that's an understatement.
The French Pastry School keeps adding world champion chefs to its staff. Two weeks ago it was En-Ming Hsu. Yesterday they announced that Dimitri Fayard of Vanille Patisserie will teach the French cakes and tarts portion of the school's 24-week "L'Art de la Pâtisserie" program beginning in January.
In a series of minor news announcements yesterday, some of the city's dirty laundry was hung out to air. Although criticized for not being independent enough, the new Office of Professional Standards cleared it's first legislative hurdle on Monday, passing the City Council’s Police Committee. OPS would go further than just investigating incidents where a firearm is discharged. The new director would have broader powers to subpoena and be free to investigate allegations of verbal...
We’re not feeling bad about missing Coachella or Bonnaroo or Virgin or any of the other music festivals going on this year, because Chicago continues to be ground zero for ass-kicking musical fun in the summer sun. Continental, open barely a year and already the all-night hangout for hipsters all over the city (full disclosure: we spin there occasionally) is leveraging some of the goodwill they’ve formed with local DJs and bands to benefit a...
Today’s your last chance to visit ARTropolis. It’s “Student Day” at Art Chicago, where students, professors, and professionals discuss the basics of an arts career. A pass admitting two people to five fairs is $15. The Illinois Bureau of Tourism has announced its Seven Wonders of Illinois, the top regional attractions selected by popular vote. Cubs fans hit the polls early and often, naming Wrigley Field Chicago’s top attraction. Wilmette’s gorgeous Baha'i Temple represents...
The rumors had been swirling about who else would play Friday night at the Pitchfork Music Festival and those rumors turned out to be true for Slint and GZA joining up with Sonic Youth to play a full album. We never heard a peep about Saturday’s headliner of Yoko Ono. Love her or hate her, for a myriad of reasons, John Lennon’s widow is quite the accomplishment for Pitchfork’s Fest in July. Ono is more...
The League of Chicago Theaters wants you to get out of the house and see more shows, but you don’t have to get off your duff to get tickets. This afternoon, the League of Chicago Theaters launches Hot Tix Online, a service that makes purchasing half-priced tickets only slightly more complicated than reading this post. For the past few months, they’ve made a few shows available for online purchase and are now expanding options for those of us who can’t easily get downtown or to Skokie.
Chicagoist admits that we're salivating over the announcement of the Apple iPhone as much as anyone, but as we discussed last week, we have some doubts about it too. After playing that guessing game once, however, we've decided to reserve further judgment until it's released to the public in June, when people not named Jobs have actually held an iPhone in their hands and put it through its paces. This hasn't stopped the hype machine...
When we were young, we were told to stand up for what we believe in. We would be rewarded with a sense of self, a sense of purpose. Mayor Daley, Aldermen Howard Brookins Jr. (21st), Shirley Coleman (16th), Anthony Beale (9th), Dorothy Tillman (3rd), and Arenda Troutman (20th) stood up for what they believed in by blocking the big box ordinance. Shirley Coleman voted for the ordinance before she voted against it (we've always wanted to put that in a post). Their claim was that so-called big box stores are a necessity, especially in areas where goods are not easily accessible.
"You like taking pictures", the man asked, as we set to the task of chronicling this week's "cheap eats." "Yes, sir", we answered. "You with the city?" "No, sir." "You with the building commission?" "No, sir." "Then why are you taking pictures?" "Because I like to take pictures of places that serve good food. You serve good food here?" The man smiled and answered, "Yes, sir. I do" The man is Agustin Bahena, whose...
Several members of the Chicagoist staff are proud graduates of the Chicago Public Schools system, K-12, the whole 9 yards. We also dream of some day being super wealthy so the Tribune’s look at private donations to CPS really hits home. Private grants are up to a total of $23 million last year from $2 million five years ago. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation even gave $9 million! We wonder if they count...
After all the drama last night, the morning commute is not looking good. We recommend looking for alternate routes, if possible. Even though the Blue line will be running, it will be at reduced levels and we're sure that it will be busy and there will be a lot of waiting. Maybe we're being pessamistic, but that's just us. We're also assuming the #56 bus will be crammed. Another alternate route is to take a Pink Line/Ashland bus combo. Here are the Blue Line details from the CTA site:
If bars were ranked on a four-star scale, Five Star would get three big gold ones. Located at 1427 W. Chicago, Five Star is a relatively new addition to the neighborhood. Opened in May, the spot already draws a trendy, but laid-back crowd. The place is casual enough to wear jeans and Chuck Taylors, but upscale enough to show up in an after-work suit and tie and fit right in. The window-lined front wall provided...
To paraphrase the advertising slogan of a certain local periodical, if you didn’t know the CTA made some major changes to its service today, it’s not their fault.
In its largest single grant ever awarded to a local school district, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given 21 million buckeroos to the Chicago Public Schools system. What for? The grant is to set up a more challenging curriculum in high school English, math, and science so that kids will be able to better prepare for college. Also, teachers will get better training. Woot!! The foundation money is a big part of the...
Attention music snobs: if your parents have been after you to come out to the ‘burbs for a visit, may we suggest the third week of March? The final roster for South by Southwest’s music conference is out, and since most of your favorite bands will be out of town at that time, Chicagoist thinks it’ll be a good time to bring home some laundry. The full list of Chicago bands is here. We noticed...
Everyone's favorite search engine, Google, gives the Windy City some love. In the past week, they've made two announcements with Chicago-area companies: The Sun-Times is running "text ads" from Google's key word advertising program in its un-sold ad inventory. Crain's Chicago reports that the terms of the deal weren't disclosed and that only 15 boxes of ads have run since they debuted on December 9th. Many newspapers consider Google the enemy, but Sun-Times Publisher John...
When the CTA's proposed methods for streamlining their operations and generating revenue sound like ideas generated by drunks in bars, you know things are bad. Back in March, the CTA hired AECOM Consulting (for the bargain price of $1.2 million) to look at ways of making the agency more efficient. We thought Idea #1 would be to stop spending so much money on outside consultants but we were wrong. In fact, AECOM says the best...
Chicagoist has been busy forming a new Arts and Entertainment team, headed up by Scott Smith, and we're pleased to announce the addition of some new contributors. Our music coverage will expand with Julene McCoy "Re-Viewing" local live music shows and venues while Jim Kopeny, a.k.a. Tankboy provides you with details on the must-see bands in town. Kristin Moo is joining us to give you the lowdown on everything literary. And finally, Justin Sondak will...
When Chicagoist saw a notice yesterday for the Midwest Independent Film Festival, we were stunned; we thought we were finished with the spring round of fests. Turns out we were right as the MWFF is a clever re-naming of the Chicago Community Cinema, a monthly screening of the best short films and videos “from the eight-state Midwest region” (we’re guessing that’s Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio). May’s program features a video...
What an awful year for the Lincoln Park Zoo. In their quest to spread free animal love throughout Chicagoland, they've become a target of animal rights activits and - at the end of the day - won't even have any elephants to show for it.
Uh. Yeh. Right. But ABC 7 did have a groundbreaking on it's new state-of-the art studio on State Street yesterday. Included in the new studio is a huge sidewalk window where people will be able to get an look behind-the-scenes of ABC 7's broadcasts.
Whee! Chicagoist just loves Cook County government! Between all the hospitals, and jails, and courts, and property taxes, there's just so much to love! That's why we're excited to read that Republican Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica is throwing down the gauntlet and holding a rally this Saturday to announce that he's running for County Board President. Sure it's been thirty-seven years since a Republican was County Board President. And of course current Democratic President...
The Pre-Show Ah, what to say. Everyone looks so...puffy. We're watching WGN because...well, we can't find the remote honestly. 6:10 PM - Do you even have the right to complain about cheesy presenters if you're watching an Oscar pre-show? Isn't that like visting a dominatrix and complaining about the pain? Still, we have a deep burning hatred of Sam Rubin. 6:17 PM - Hilary Swank going against the grain with no cleavage display. Wearing drapes...
High noon came and went in the Cook County Board yesterday, and it seems that the bullets hit their mark. It was all about passing the 2005 budget. Three months late, and with a $73 million deficit, Board President John Stroger (at right) refused to make cuts, and instead insisted on increasing hotel and restaurant sales taxes two percent, lifting Chicago taxes to the nation's highest, 19.25%. Cutting the budget would lead to significant service...
Chicagoist loves to find locally made products that we can spend our money on instead of .. you know.. like eating and stuff. Carry handbags was one we really liked (and bought). Another that we plan on getting some girly tees from after we get paid is Formula Werks. Yet another recent find is Erickson Design's handmade invitations.
Several years ago, Chicagoist was reading an interview with a Big Famous Movie Critic who was asked why critics sometimes fall all over themselves to single out a particular film for near unanimous praise. BFMC replied that as critics, they are required to see almost every movie that’s released and most of them are crap. So when a film (or a filmmaker) comes along with an original, intelligent work that is also entertaining, he and...
Since iPods are threatening to reach critical mass (thanks in part to the minis), it’s time for Apple to crank up the exclusivity factor again. And that means new features, a new paint job, and a ringing endorsement from the biggest band in the world right now. The big announcements out of Cupertino this week that Apple would be selling a U2 signature version of the iPod as well as iPod Photo only confirmed a rumor that quickly evolved into a foregone conclusion within the Apple community. Which is cool and all but Chicagoist is pissed we’ve got to wait until November for the iPod Socks (iSocks?) pictured above.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
tweet this
add to facebook
